If someone told you Captain America: The Winter Soldier is about President Obama's terror-suspect kill list, would you believe that? Well, you should: Because that's what it's basically about according to Joe Russo, who co-directed the film with his brother, Anthony Russo.

"[Marvel] said they wanted to make a political thriller. So we said if you want to make a political thriller, all the great political thrillers have very current issues in them that reflect the anxiety of the audience," Joe Russo told Mother Jones. "That gives it an immediacy, it makes it relevant. So [Anthony] and I just looked at the issues that were causing anxiety for us, because we read a lot and are politically inclined. And a lot of that stuff had to do with civil liberties issues, drone strikes, the president's kill list, preemptive technology."

From there, the brothers worked with with screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to get the idea in motion.

Don't fret if you like your Marvel superhero summer blockbusters with less political influence by way of Three Days of the Condor, but packed edge-of-the-seat storytelling. It's been getting great reviews so far, Mother Jones called it thrilling as hell—and speaking of Anthony and him, Joe Russo says, "We're action fetishists."